I often get emails from people unfamiliar with the group asking what trips are being planned. Here is the canned response I include in my reply:

Currently, we're a fairly informal group. The "Upcoming Trips" forum is primarily a portal for people to hook up with each other to go paddling. After talking things around with the core group of members, we decided that in this litigious society we live in, liability was a serious concern, and since no written waiver is likely to protect us, we take this additional step requiring everyone to acknowledge a few common sense facts. Then we simply post when we're going on the forum and people can come if they want to.

To gain access to the Upcoming Trips forum, you must first <a href="http://www.wtpaddlers.org/phpBB2/profile.php?mode=register">register</a>.